HYDERABAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s assertion that the BJP would end Muslim reservations and provide the same benefit to SC and ST communities has triggered a debate in the State. The ST organisations say that the State government can enhance the reservation quota for STs with an executive order.
At present, STs are getting six per cent reservations in the State. The State government had proposed to increase it to 9.08 per cent as per their population after bifurcation of the State. As per the 2011 latest census, the total population of STs in the State is 31.78 lakh and constitute 9.08 per cent of the total population.
The State government adopted ‘Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of seats in educational institutions and appointments or posts in the services under the State) Bill, 2017. It was intended to increase the ST reservation from six per cent to 10 per cent, and the same was sent to the Central government for its approval.
President of All India Banjara Seva Sangh, an ST organisation, and former Minister Amarsingh Tilawat recalled that after receiving the bill, the Ministry of Home Affairs felt that irrespective of the total reservation marked for all communities, the ST reservation should not be reduced below 9.08 per cent.
Amarsingh pointed out that the 50 per cent cap imposed by Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney versus Union of India case did not have any significance on the issue of enhancement of reservations to STs in Telangana in the event of granting 10 per cent reservations for economically backward classes (EBCs), due to which the reservation percentage had crossed 50 per cent bar in most States.
“The issue of enhancement of reservations for STs on the basis of their population is within the purview of the State, since the enhancement of ST reservations will be applicable to only State government jobs. The State does not require any permission from the Central government for enhancing the ST reservations as per the population. The State is required the Centre’s permission to enhance the BC(E) reservations, from the present four per cent to 12 percent,” All India Banjara Seva Sangh secretary M Dhananjay Naik said.
According to an estimate, the STs lost around 5,400 out of the 1.35 lakh job posts filled by the State government in the last eight years. If the reservations are not increased, the STs may lose another 3,646 jobs in the ongoing recruitment drive, claim the ST bodies.
“Kindly intervene in the matter and see that the Ministry of Home Affairs instructs the State government to delink the issue of enhancement of reservations to STs from six per cent to 9.08 per cent from the TBCSCST Bill, 2017 and issue a GO in this regard,” the ST organisations recently requested Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy.